I am working on a PhD thesis that focuses on old age in Anglo-Saxon England. The title of this project is The Revered, the Rejected and the Ridiculed. The Many Faces of Old Age in Anglo-Saxon England (2011-2016, supervisor prof. dr. R.H. Bremmer). This project comprises a study of old age in Anglo-Saxon culture, based on both a lexicological analysis of words for old age in Old English and an analysis of texts of diverse nature (homilies, saints’ lives, epic poetry). Its primary aim is to establish whether there was one monolithic, positive image of old age in Anglo-Saxon England, as hitherto assumed, or whether there were multiple ideas existing side by side.

2007-2010: Various temporary teaching positions in Linguistics and Philology at the department of English Language and Culture, Leiden University
2010: Temporary teaching position at the department of English, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
2010: Temporary employment as an English Teacher at Mendelcollege, Haarlem
2011-2016: PhD student and teacher (docentpromovendus) at the department of English Language and Culture, Leiden University

Philology 1: Introduction to Middle English Language and Literature - Philology 2: Introduction to Old English Language and Culture

Philology 3: History of the English Language

Philology 5/6: Early Modern Everyday English

Philology 5/6: Introduction to Late Modern English

Philology 5/6: Old English Literature

Linguistics 1: Phonetics of English

Linguistics 2: Syntax of English

Linguistics 4: Phonology of English

Linguistics 5: The Morphology of English

Linguistics 5: English Historical Linguistics

I have supervised BA and MA theses on various topics, including Beowulf, Anglo-Saxon saints, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and popular adaptations of medieval material, such as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, BBC’s Merlin, Skyrim and movie adaptations of Beowulf.

In addition, I am the current coordinator of the Minor ‘Europa in de Middeleeuwen en Vroegmoderne Tijd’.

‘“Leeve mooder, leet me in”—Attitudes towards Old Age and Death in Medieval English Literature’, LUCAS Graduate Conference 2013: Death, the Cultural Meaning of the End of Life, Leiden University (25-01-2013).

‘Revaluing Ageing in Anglo-Saxon England: Was the early medieval period a golden age for the elderly?’, Second VALUE AGEING seminar “Law and Technology Perspectives on Intergenerational Justice”, Free University Brussels (12-10-2012).

‘Atol yldo: Growing Old in Anglo-Saxon England’, MANCASS Post-Graduate Conference “Domesticity in the Anglo-Saxon World”, University of Manchester (05-03-2012).

‘That is no country for old men: Anglo-Saxon connotations of old age’, Thirty-First Symposium on Old English, Middle English and Historical Linguistics in the Low Countries, Leiden University (18-12-2009).

In addition, I have given over twenty public lectures on ‘popular’ topics, such as Tolkien’s The Hobbit, movie adaptations of Beowulf, King Arthur, The Norman Conquest, Dr Who in Anglo-Saxon England and Anglo-Saxon anecdotes. These lectures were presented for Leiden University, Leidenhoven College Amsterdam, Great Anglo-Saxon Gobblers (Student society English language and culture, Radboud University Nijmegen), Albion Association (Student society English language and culture, Leiden University) and A.S.V. Prometheus (Student association, Leiden).